Horsetooth Half Marathon Training, Weeks 2-3

Look at me, blogging three weeks in a row! It’s almost as though I’ve achieved work-life balance… but it may be more that I’m choosing different things to ignore. Whatevs. (Do people still say that? I don’t think they do).

Anyway, I’m plugging right along with training for the Horsetooth Half. I’m feeling good, getting a little fitter all the time, and starting to feel more and more like my old self. Here are the deets (I’m all about the ’90s slang today) from the last two weeks.

Monday, Jan. 15

I felt the need for a day off (see Week 1’s recap), and I had the day off work and just a couple of days left on the 30-day unlimited yoga pass I bought in December. I took the day off running and went to hot yoga instead. I like hot yoga now. Then I went to physical therapy in the afternoon. Self-care for the win!

Tuesday, Jan. 16

Short hill repeats: 10 x 30-second hill sprints, 5.2 miles total with warm-up and cool-down. My favorite hill for short repeats — which is my favorite because it’s close and there’s never any traffic — was PACKED with cars that day. Turns out, the highway construction nearby is detouring cars on my favorite road. For several months. Guess I need to find a new hill. Whomp whomp.

Wednesday, January 17

Rode the spin bike (and forgot to log it in Strava, I just realized) and did some strength work.

Thursday, January 18

6 miles easy plus 4 strides. I am so loving the longer days.

Friday, January 19

4 easy miles, followed by strength training

Saturday, January 20

Horsetooth is hilly, so I need to run big hills. The weather was lovely, and a big storm was rolling in overnight. Clearly, the combination of these meant I needed to trail run. I headed up to Fort Collins for a climb up Towers Road. If you’re not familiar with Towers, here’s what you need to know:

Someday, I will run the whole thing. Saturday, I did a decent bit of hiking. 10 miles total.

Sunday, January 21

Rest. It’s rare for me, especially now that I’m uninjured, to run only 4 days a week, but my body was begging for rest after Saturday’s workout, and if that injury taught me one thing, it’s to let the body rest when the body wants to rest. Plus it was snow-storming out, so it really was a perfect day for rest.

Week 2 Total Miles: 25.2

Monday, January 22

3.1 easy miles, then strength training.

Tuesday. January 23

6 x 2-minutes at 10k pace, 2-minutes recovery. 5 miles total, with warm-up and cool-down. I had an after-school training that required an early-morning treadmill run. I’ve managed to avoid those for most of this winter, so having to do one morning wasn’t SO bad.

Tried to take an artsy picture for Instagram. Artsy and 4:30 a.m. do not mix well.

Wednesday, January 24

4 miles easy, then strength training.

Thursday, January 25

6 miles plus 4 strides. I tried to take a cool jumping picture. Instead, I made this face and did this with my arms:

I’m SO COOL.

Friday, January 26

Rest day! I had a meeting-slash-happy-hour and then a basketball game, and decided that rest was better than another early workout. Look at me, trying to be smart. It only took me 32 years.

Saturday, January 27

Jordan had a meeting and I had a haircut, both in Loveland, so I dropped him at his meeting, then ran, then took my gross, sweaty head to the hairdresser. Yes, I tipped well. My training plan said 5 miles, but the clock said “Stop or you’ll be late” at 4. Oh well; that one mile probably won’t make or break my race in April. (That’s sarcasm, FYI).

Sunday, January 28

11-mile long run on the hilliest route I can run without having to drive anywhere. It was lovely. Welcome to Colorado, where we run in short skirts while there’s still snow on the ground.

Week 3 Total Miles: 33.1

If you looked only at these two weeks, you’d think I was egregiously breaking the 10-percent rule, but worry not: I’ve been consistently running 30-35 miles/week for several weeks; last week was just a weird one.

The upcoming week brings my first tempo run in 1.5 years and a fast-finish long run, which I haven’t done in… I don’t even know how long. Should be interesting.